LISTOWEL – Kevin Mills, the newest principal at Listowel District Secondary School, has 20 years of educating experience and is here to make an impact.
Mills, a University of Waterloo alumnus, has multiple degrees including one in mathematics and another in computer sciences. He found his passion for educating through training individuals in technology when he was participating in that field. Along with the stimulation that training brought to him, his father, who was a teacher as well, is an inspiration to him.
“He’s a tradesman and then in his early 40s, he became a teacher,” said Mills. “So he taught electricity and welding and drafting at that point. And that kind of got me hooked into being interested in becoming a teacher and an educator, and I think I picked it up through him.”
Mills also had an enjoyable and successful high school experience, and had a passion to learn. When asked what he has to offer to the school, he said that he has been successful in “trying to build trust through transparency,” meaning that he will answer a question in a straightforward manner and build a relationship through that.
Mills is also a believer that learning should be enjoyable and fun. He is hoping that some engaging activities will be held, now that in-person learning is more present at the school.
Being able to analyze and take in information in a variety of ways and fill in gaps are other assets of Mills. He expects that intervention will be put into play, and accountability, identifying and adjusting for gaps as well at LDSS.
Past schools that Mills has served as principal include Exeter at South Huron, St. Marys DCVI, Stratford Central and the latest, previous to LDSS, was Stratford District after the merging of the two Stratford schools together. Listowel is set to be Mills’ final school.
Over the course of 20 years educating at several different schools, Mills has said that his proudest principal moment “would probably be the thousands of kids that have graduated while I was their principal. So that tells me that they have achieved their goals, they’re successful.”
Seeing his students succeed and acknowledging that learning never really stops are topics that Mills mentions often during an interview with Midwestern Newspapers. Mills is ready to tackle the challenges that LDSS faces. In contending with a pandemic, and students having to adjust to the changing aspects of COVID-19, Mills notes that some students have had a harder time adjusting back to a four-period day, in a regular high school setting – especially those in grades 9 and 10.
“I know, talking to Grade 9 students, when I first got here, they were struggling a little bit with the pace of the classes,” he said.
In order to ease the transition, Mills is now in talks with the school’s departments, to see what they are witnessing from their students. The challenges Mills believes lay ahead, first off, is that everyone should be comfortable and adapted to a typical school day and environment and that would be a task in itself. He also considers that there may be some learning gaps associated with the pandemic that should try to be identified, closed and moved on from. At the current time, those are his biggest challenges corresponding to the school.
And although assigned the position of principal at LDSS, Mills still wanted to qualify for the job.
“Very happy to come here,” he said. “I think the vibe in this school is just awesome and is very, very positive, and everybody has been very welcoming to me.”
